One Touch Hard Drive Backup - External HDD

Chicago Wine Geek

I searched but couldn't find anything, sorry if this has already been asked. I need an external HDD that comes with software for painless HDD backup and restore. This isn't for me, but for my mom. Mom is pretty good, but not very technical. So ease of use is my #1 consideration. I know what's out there, Seagate, Maxtor, ect. but I seem to find universal bad user reviews. Anyone have a winner? I'm guessing 320GB capacity.

Thanks.

**Doctor Feelgood** · Posted: Fri, 16 Mar 2007 12:45:18 Post Subject:

Do you want an enclosure with the drive already in it, or would you consider an enclosure where you could add your own drive?

Like the X350 recently reviewed...

http://www.bigbruin.com/2007/cmxcraft_1

For pre-builts, I have seen good deals on the Western Digital My Book thing... pricing links

Chicago Wine Geek · Posted: Fri, 16 Mar 2007 13:09:19 Post Subject:

Enclosure with the drive inside. Pricing isn't a concern since storage drops a ton every week. It's all about ease of use. As far as I can tell, the WD drives don't have bundled software.

BeerCheeze · Posted: Fri, 16 Mar 2007 14:23:06 Post Subject:

Maybe something like this? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182034

Buying an enclosure (like the X350 or the Rosewill one) and adding a drive might give you what you need, maybe even better, and for cheaper.

Chicago Wine Geek · Posted: Fri, 16 Mar 2007 14:42:23 Post Subject:

The problem with that - from what I can tell - is the software that's included isn't that good. My best bet is go with a standard external HDD and then buy the highest rated software out there that actually clones the drive. Most software just copies files. I want a package that if the primary HDD fails, I can boot from the backup drive and have everything come back up as if nothing happened.

Chicago Wine Geek · Posted: Fri, 16 Mar 2007 15:04:37 Post Subject:

I'm thinking of going with Acronis True Image 10 Home. Anyone have any experience with this?

Hellfire · Rated XXX Joined: 05 Aug 2003 Posts: 3473

I have Acronis True Image 10. I love it.

Can schedule it, or manually create an identical copy of the system (or specific files).

Create a boot disk, and drop the images it creates to a removable HD.

I can take my system back to pristine condition in about 10-15 minutes.

When I build a box, I take an image with nothing but the OS/drivers installed. Then another when I get 1/2 the basic software installed, and finally another when I get the last bit of software installed.

If I screw something up, I can go back to any of those points in a matter of 10-15 minutes.

Chicago Wine Geek · Posted: Fri, 16 Mar 2007 15:53:33 Post Subject:

So Acronis and an external USB HDD will give me what I want, correct? Cool.

**Doctor Feelgood** · Posted: Fri, 16 Mar 2007 16:06:43 Post Subject:

That is what I use now... Only because I paid for Acronis. I was using a free app called SyncBack SE... I liked it better.

So, right now I have that Cooler Master X350 (which comes with its own backup software) being used as a backup with Acronis 10 on a 300GB drive.

**Modulok** · Posted: Fri, 16 Mar 2007 16:09:41 Post Subject:

yeah, not that you need to hear it again, but Acronis rocks...when I used ghost on a single drive that was great, but it couldn't restore my raid0 so I started looking for something that would. Acronis does it and more.